


The People We Once Knew

by kawada_s



Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 18:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10519401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawada_s/pseuds/kawada_s
Summary: Haruka comes back to Shiroiwa in the eleventh grade after leaving towards the end of ninth grade, figuring out how much everything has changed. Hirono is there to give her some answers, and helps her feel a little less alone.





	

The People We Once Knew

The boxes only contain clothes, but it doesn’t stop them from feeling like they weigh a ton as she takes them from the car. She didn’t expect to be back here now, not so soon, at least. Maybe after school was done, before college started, she’d come back for a while, but not everything goes to plan like that. Just when she was starting to find structure again, it was torn away from her, and again, she has to figure out how to do it. She’s not sure she can this time.

She has only been back in Shiroiwa for about fifteen minutes and already, she is struggling to breathe. It feels like she has been taken back to the day when she left, a mess of tears and deep breaths, telling herself to breathe, just keep on breathing, and she’d be gone before she knew it. At least, at the very least, there are no tears this time, and she doesn’t feel like she will pass out. However, she stills feels shaky, her arms quivering as she attempts to grip the box tighter, but her t-shirts scatter all over the ground all the same.

Maybe  now, she’ll cry. She hasn’t even been back half an hour, and she already can’t hold a box. When footsteps fill her ears, she tells herself to put her tears away for another time, when she’s in the privacy of her new-old bedroom, where no one can see or hear. For now, she needs to keep herself together, and she’s going to try her damn hardest to do so.

“Here, let me take this,” the rough voice rings a bell, but she can’t place it until she wills herself to look its owner. Still the same dark eyes and spiky hair, only instead of black, it is now bright blonde. Hirono Shimizu – who knew she’d come to help someone in need like this? If anything, she’d probably be expected to just ridicule her for dropping the box.

“Thank you,” she mumbles, reaching into the car to produce a smaller box, a little more manageable at this point. She feels like an idiot, as she can carry much heavier boxes, but she tells herself to give herself a break, that the circumstances are different at the moment, and it helps, but only a little.

“It’s fine – holy _shit_ , is that you, Tanizawa?” Hirono’s eyes widen when she sees her, never expecting to see her face again. Her heart beats a little faster as Haruka steps back, almost dropping this box as well as pink fills her cheeks, and she wills herself to stop being so stupid. It’s just a classmate – and one she never talked to, either, but she knows why she feels like this. She just isn’t going to admit it.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Haruka nods at her. One introduction down, many more to go. She’ll have a little more time to prepare herself for the next time someone comes along, she figures, since there’s about a week until school starts up and she’ll have to see everyone again. At least the first person she came across was Hirono. No bad history there. No history at all, actually. It’s better that way.

“I never expected to see you again,” Hirono says, it slipping before she can catch the words. She watches her eyes widen as she steps back, but as she manages to read her, she realises she isn’t creeped out. It’s almost as if she never _expected_ anyone to miss her, even though her sudden disappearance was the talk of the school right up until the last day. She doesn’t comment about it further, though. People have reasons for leaving. She gets that.

“It was kind of unexpected, coming back,” Haruka mumbles, heading inside her house with the box. Nervously, Hirono follows, having never expected to be in Haruka’s home ever, but she isn’t complaining. Grateful that her parents don’t ask any questions as she heads up the stairs and into her room, she places the box on her bed. She tells herself not to look around, the room slowly beginning to resemble Haruka again, as she’ll never be here again, but she can’t help it.

She nods at Haruka’s words, her response rather delayed, but she doesn’t say anything more, getting the feeling that she’d rather not elaborate. In the quiet, the two unpack together, Hirono trying to think of something, anything, to say, but her mind is blank. She’s never been good with words – at least, not the nice ones. She’s never had much of a reason to be kind before, she figured.

“Thank you,” Haruka breaks her silence eventually, the sun down, boxes unpacked. Downstairs, she hears the front door creak open, parents finally home. As Hirono gets up, seemingly finding it as her cue to leave, she thinks about asking her to stay a little longer, but figures it wouldn’t be the best idea. Her parents will ask too many questions.

“It’s no big deal, I had nothing better to do,” Hirono says with a shrug, heading to the door before realising what she’d said. “I.. I mean, yeah… you know… happy to help.”

Haruka nods at her, shooting her a small smile. While she was definitely one of the scariest people in the grade, she’d never thought Hirono was that bad. She was honest, even brutally so, but that was much more preferred than what some other people she’d met were like. Out of all the former classmates that she could have bumped into, Hirono was probably one of the better ones to see. The thought of seeing some again sounds like torture, but she pushes the thought to the back of her mind. She still has some time to prepare herself, if it was possible.

“Hey, Shimizu,” Haruka suddenly called out, watching as the spiky haired girl quickly turned back around, “I… I’ll see you at school next week.”

“Yeah,” Hirono nods at her, about to leave, for good this time, when an idea popped into her mind. “You know… you could catch up with everyone a little earlier if you want to. There’s gonna be a party on Saturday night, at Kuronaga’s house. I can take you if you want.”

Haruka looks at her, the names of her former classmates running through her head, the ones she’s dreading seeing the most sticking with her. Most likely, they’ll be there, and the thought of meeting them again makes her want to run away on a train to absolutely anywhere. Still, she considers it for a while. There’s nowhere else but here now, so she may as well get used to the inevitable. Unlike at school, there’s a chance she’ll blend in at a party.

The back of her mind fighting against her the whole time, she gives her a nod, and after they exchange numbers, Hirono is gone.

The party remains in the forefront of her mind all week.

—

**Hirono Shimizu:** it’s okay if i pick u up in like 20 minutes right  

The pinging of the text almost makes Haruka jump out of her skin, cheeks flushing pink as the librarian shoots her a dirty look. Why didn’t she remember to put it on silent before coming here? Still, while embarrassed, it doesn’t stop a smile from crossing her face when she sees the text is from Hirono. She didn’t forget about her, which she had convinced herself must have happened several hours ago. Why would Hirono remember her, of all people? She always seemed like a person who would have bigger and better people on her mind.

**Haruka Tanizawa:** That’s perfect. If you don’t mind, can you pick me up outside the public library?

She puts her phone on silent a mere few seconds before Hirono messages back, the peace of the library restored once again. It’s just a one word answer of ‘sure,’ but she smiles again, then gets back to work trying to find the book she’s looking for. She doesn’t want to keep her waiting, but at the same time, doesn’t want to ask the librarian for help – not after the impression she gave off.

Another shelf providing no answers, she finally realises she’s in the completely wrong section, and walks as fast as she can to the other side of the library. If it wasn’t for school, she wouldn’t be here, but showing up without the needed material on Monday will only draw more unwanted attention to herself. She recites the name of the book over and over in her head as she searches the shelves, finding a battered copy of the book when she’s almost about to give up. Maybe it’s a sign of luck.

When she turns around to head to the checkout desk, she freezes and takers a few steps back. Through the shelves, she’s spotted a former classmate. Noriko Nakagawa walks towards one of the study desks carrying two takeout cups of coffee. Upon figuring out it’s her, she sighs in relief, but she’s still not going to go say hello. It would be much too awkward.

“Here,” she hears Noriko say quietly to her companion, “since it’s going to be a long night, I figured we need some coffee to get us through.”

She should move on, she knows that, but she moves a few steps to the side to see who she’s with. Another girl, she immediately notices, her hair dark, just the slightest bit longer than hers. When she reaches out to take the coffee, thanking Noriko, she can finally realise who it is, but it just seems too crazy to believe. _Mitsuko Souma and Noriko Nakagawa are studying in the library together on a Saturday night._

Too odd. It reminds her that she’s not the only one who has changed since the end of junior high. She wonders if Hirono would be willing to tell her the story behind that, but decides against it. Hirono might start asking questions about her life since junior high ended, and she’s not ready to go there yet. She wonders if she’ll ever be.

Another familiar face greets her at the checkout desk. Dark eyes staring down at her book behind a pair of blue glasses, face solemn, is Yuka Nakagawa. Again, this doesn’t add sense. Yuka was constantly cracking jokes about how boring the library was – even getting banned from the school library for a considerable amount of time for being too loud. Why on Earth would she _ever_ become a library assistant?

“Hey, Yuka,” the words stumble out of her mouth before she can stop it. Recognition shines in the girl’s eyes, but she doesn’t smile, so out of character for her. Haruka knows a lot can change in almost two years, but she never imagined this much changing when she came back. She wonders if Yuka still hangs out with Noriko, and if Mitsuko is now part of their group as well, her replacement in a way, but she decides not to ask.

“Hey,” Yuka simply responds, fiddling with her glasses as she checks the book out.

She takes back the book and the receipt showing the due date, their hands touching for a moment. Hirono will be coming soon, maybe even out the door right now, but she doesn’t want to leave without saying anything.

“Yuka, are you okay?” Haruka asks her. The words come out all wrong – too fast and somewhat accusing, but she can’t take them back.

“I’m okay,” Yuka nods. “I just grew up, I guess.”

Haruka nods back at her and leaves the library, spending the rest of her time until Hirono comes to pick her up wondering what else around here has changed.

—

In all regards, Hiroshi Kuronaga’s house is just… in the middle, Haruka decides, thinking of no better description. It’s situated in a ‘middle’ neighbourhood, the type you can walk through at night without being worried for your safety, but at the same time, wouldn’t be a homebuyer’s first neighbourhood of choice to move to. It’s medium sized and two storeys, just big enough for partygoers to move around in without feeling suffocated, the crowds the only vast thing about it. Still, Haruka doesn’t feel that uncomfortable as she walks inside, Hirono right beside her.

She isn’t in the house five minutes before she is spotted. Sho Tsukioka spots Hirono in the crowd and goes to greet her, eyes lighting up when he sees the unexpected guest. Within seconds, she’s wrapped in a hug and being bombarded with questions – where was she, how is she going, and all that stuff – but she doesn’t mind. Sho was one of the only classmates she missed when she left. She wished she kept in contact with him when she left, or told him why she was leaving. He’s a gossip, but not when it comes to things like that. With stuff like that, he’s someone you can trust.

“I’m okay,” Haruka shrugs, trying to keep herself calm and collected. “I was accepted to play volleyball at a school near my aunt’s, so I moved in with her. She died two weeks ago… so I’m back here again to finish up school.”

“Sorry to hear about your aunt, but it’s cool you’re back. There’s so much you need to catch up on-“ Sho cuts himself off when he hears a loud crash behind him, “Oh for fucks’ sake, Hiroshi. Breaking things in your own fucking house, and guess who will be blamed for it? _Me._ I’ll be back, I promise.”

Quickly, Sho is gone, most likely to yell at Hiroshi, and as he leaves, Haruka can’t help but laugh along with Hirono. Seeing Sho has made her feel a little better, reminding her that as intimidating as it felt to see everyone again, at least Sho and Hirono were on her side.

“He seems happy enough,” Haruka says, not wanting silence to grow between the two of them. Hirono gives her a nod and a smile as she navigates the two of them through the party.

“Yeah, he’s doing pretty good. Got together with Takiguchi about a month ago - and since then, he’s been so fucking happy it’s almost dumb. He deserves someone good, though, so I put up with it,” Hirono shrugs. “The rest of the group of idiots he hangs out with are doing okay too, I guess. Kiriyama is still, well, _Kiriyama,_ only he’s actually dating someone now – Numai. Sasagawa is with Motobuchi – shocking, I know – complimenting each other well as an intense overachiever and a complete underachiever. Kuronaga earned some respect after he started throwing parties.”

“It seems like he knows how to throw a party,” Haruka shrugs. She isn’t the best judge on partying, preferring to stay in or just have a small outing with friends back in her aunt’s town. Hirono doesn’t seem to notice this though, as she just nods back at her.

“I hate to say it, but he can do something right. I hang out with their group of idiots a lot, mostly in school though. Sometimes I see Hiroshi outside school or go with Sho to the mall, but not when he’s fucking clothes shopping. That was Yos-“ Hirono cuts herself off abruptly, and quickly grabbing a cup from the bar, “want a drink?”

“Uh, sure,” Haruka nods quickly, deciding to just go along with it, but it doesn’t stop her being a little curious. She still decides to change the subject instead of trying to push her to elaborate, thinking it would be for the better, “so… it seems like for the majority, not much has changed.”

“Yeah, sometimes it looks like that,” Hirono hands her a drink, taking a long sip of her own, “Nanahara is still largely the same, hangs with the same crowd, still plays his stupid guitar and tries to be friends with everyone, Niida’s in juvie for being a fucking creep, just as everyone expected, Chigusa is still on the track team, still breaking records, still has that orange shit in her hair. Others… though… just look at that mess over there and you’ll get what I mean.”

Haruka frowns but nods, gripping her cup tightly as she looks in the direction Hirono had motioned in. It’s hard to see what she wanted her to focus on due to the crowd of teenagers crowded around, so she takes a few steps closer. As a few of them move slightly, she finally sees what Hirono wanted her to look at. In the middle of the group a girl is slumped on the couch, laughing between sips from a bottle. Her glasses are about to fall off her face.

“Oh my god,” Haruka’s eyes widen, “is that… _Satomi Noda?_ ”

“Yeah. Hard to believe, right?” Hirono quickly leads them away from the spectacle. “No one really knows why she ended up like that. She split from your group a week after you left, I think, and then ended up like this a few months into high school.”

Haruka listens, but doesn’t reply, looking around the party as she takes another sip from her cup. She knows why Satomi would have left their group, but it’s not an explanation she wants to offer up just yet. She isn’t too sure how Satomi ended up with this crowd, though. Everyone thought that she would absolutely flourish in high school, not like… this. She takes one glance back at the group, but she can’t see her anymore, and decides that it’s best to just keep walking. Hirono seems to understand she wants the silence – well, as silent as you can get at a party, and just watches her as they go along.

The next thing to catch her eye is Kyoichi Motobuchi standing in the corner, Ryuhei Sasagawa slumped against the wall beside him with a drink, staggering off to yell at Hiroshi about something. While the sight of Kyoichi at a party is rather odd, it isn’t what truly stands out to her. The most interesting sight is the fact that Yuko Sakaki stands with him, face serious, in deep conversation with him. She can’t help but smile when they pass her, glad she’s found her voice.

“Sakaki’s the vice-captain of the debate team,” Hirono says, noticing her smile. “The president, of course, is Motobuchi.”

“Of course,” Haruka laughs. Briefly, she catches Yuko’s eye, and she gives her a small wave. Yuko returns it before returning to her talk with Kyoichi and they move on.

Almost out of the house now, they spot Chisato Matsui sitting on the floor, cigarette in hand, staring aimlessly down at the carpet. When Hirono tells her that she dropped out a few months into high school, a pang of hurt runs through her, but she walks by anyway, not knowing what she would say to her. It doesn’t add up, but she must have had her reasons.

The cold air greets her as they walk into Hiroshi’s small backyard, some lights put up and music blaring, all she can immediately tell was organised by Sho. Hiroshi wouldn’t think of details like lights and music that’s actually kind of good. It isn’t as crowded as the inside of the house, so it’s easy to soon find a quiet spot somewhere and just observe. She spots Fumiyo Fujiyoshi sitting beside a girl she thinks is Mayumi Tendo, and the two share a kiss. She smiles at the sight and then looks away, her mind wandering to the thoughts of someone she’s glad she hasn’t seen yet.

“Are you okay?” Hirono asks her a few minutes of quiet, able to tell she’s thinking hard about something, probably something she’d rather forget. She’s still quite unfamiliar with the concept of being nice, but she’s going to try. She doesn’t want to blow this.

“Yeah,” Haruka looks down at her now empty cup, placing it down beside her. “Just thinking, I guess. I never thought I’d see anyone here again… and so many people have changed. My group… not that I’d call it that anymore, I barely recognise most of them.”

“Your group isn’t the only one,” Hirono says, mentally cursing herself as soon as the words have left her lips, hoping she hasn’t taken it as rude.

Haruka just meets her eye, as if to say, ‘I’m here to listen, if you want,’ and with a deep sigh, Hirono prepares herself to start explaining. She can’t do it without a smoke first, lighting a cigarette and taking a drag before one could say, ‘smoke, please.’ Haruka waits to for her to be finished, watching as she crushes the cigarette under her boot almost _too_ violently, then beginning to talk.

“My group split about two months into tenth grade,” Hirono starts. “Me and Mitsuko decided it would be for the best to stop hanging out, seeing as we started arguing as soon as we got into the same fucking room, so we completely split paths. I started hanging out with Sho and his group, as I told you before, and Mitsuko ended up by herself for a while.”

Haruka nods at her, sensing she’ll get an explanation for how what she saw in the library ended up happening.

“Then, out of nowhere, she started hanging out with Noriko Nakagawa, and the next thing everyone knows, they’re dating,” Hirono explains. “And, even weirder, Mitsuko started studying and actually trying in school… and now she’s one of the best students in the eleventh grade.”

“That’s quite impressive,” Haruka says, happy for the girl though quite surprised. It’s always good to see someone turn themselves around – she hopes that Chisato and Satomi can do the same one day, hopefully soon. A name comes to mind, one that has been left unspoken, probably on purpose, but she asks before she can stop herself. “Hirono… you guys used to hang out with another girl, didn’t you? Yoshimi Yahagi…”

Something changes in Hirono’s expression, her dropping the cigarette she was about to light, and Haruka thinks about apologising, telling her she doesn’t have to say anything, but she speaks before she can.

“Yoshimi… she… well… about a month-“ Hirono begins, but is cut off by the shouts coming from the more populated part of the backyard.

Apparently, a fight is brewing. With an eye roll, Hirono gets up, holding a hand out for Haruka, and the two watch from afar, getting a glimpse every now and then of the two that are supposedly going to fight. Haruka sees Satomi first, looking worse than she did the last time she saw her, hair a mess, unsteady on her feet, looking as if she’ll fall down onto the grass at any moment. She tries to catch what she’s saying, but her yelling is just about unintelligible.

She can hear the response of the other person though, a girl, perfectly clear, and for a moment, she feels as if her heart is going to completely stop.

“Why can’t you just leave me _alone?_ This shouldn’t even be a problem anymore, it was _two years_ ago-“ Yukie Utsumi responds to her, cut off before she can get her full argument out. It’s obvious even without having a good look at her that she’s just barely keeping herself together, trying her hardest to appear the reasonable one, almost about to descend into yelling herself.

“Two years doesn’t make it all just go away,” Satomi snaps, taking a few steps closer to Yukie. The crowd steps back a little bit, giving Haruka a better view, and at the sight of Yukie, she almost wants to look away, but she just _can’t._

“Yukie, let’s just go home. Satomi is just drunk and upset, she’ll be okay tomorrow. We should be studying anyway,” a new voice enters the conversation. Izumi Kanai. She looks so out of place, looking like she’s meant to be at a luncheon instead of a party. Her voice has the same quality as Yukie’s – just barely holding it together, and Haruka wonders if the two are close.

“Kanai pretty much hangs on every fucking word Utsumi says,” Hirono scoffs. “Can’t realise she’s being fucking used. She’s only ‘best friends’ with her because she’s the mayor’s daughter – it looks good.”

Satomi is yelling again, Haruka only catching bits and pieces, about how much of a fake Yukie is, whatever that’s supposed to mean, and how she’s ruined everything. Yukie doesn’t get to respond, however, as Satomi shoves her down on the grass, Izumi jumping back to avoid being kicked, just watching on in horror as her friend is attacked. Haruka shares a similar expression, never imagining this happening in a million years.

Everyone watches on, some people yelling and cheering on, and close in on the fight, obscuring their view of the fight. For a moment, Hirono and Haruka both watch, waiting for the few small glimpses they get. Yukie does not seem to be fighting back. Eventually, decreeing the display as absolutely pathetic, Hirono gently reaches for her wrist, figuring they should get going, but Haruka is gone before she can reach her.

She’s… heading towards the fight, Hirono realises. Eyes wide, it as if her feet are glued to to the ground, all she can do is watch as Haruka breaks through the crowd, them stepping back in shock to see someone intervening. Several of them recognise her, her name moving around the crowd in a hushed whisper.

“Stop it!” Haruka shouts, grabbing Satomi off Yukie with as much strength as she can muster, but Satomi still tries to throw another punch at Yukie. “Izumi, _do something!”_

At the sight of Haruka, Izumi seems to wake up, and she grabs Yukie, helping her up. Gently, she grabs a tissue from her pocket and gives it to the girl, while Haruka takes care of Satomi, sitting her down on a chair, her now done trying to tear her former friend apart, head drooping slightly as the alcohol catches up with her. With a sigh, Fumiyo steps up and says she’ll get her home, and Mayumi helps her up. Now, it just leaves a rapidly dispersing crowd, Izumi, Hirono watching in the background, and most of all, Yukie, who now that she has stopped bleeding, has finally properly taken in the sight of her.

“H-Haruka?” her voice is uncertain, almost scared, even, as it tests out the name she has tried to avoid saying for almost two years now. “You’re back.”

“Yeah,” Haruka says. This was what she was afraid of, seeing her again, but here she is, and now that she’s involved, she can’t just run away now. “I transferred back here.”

“I never thought I’d see you again,” Yukie says, remembering the events she’d tried to forget, how she’d just left just like that and completely vanished, how she figured it was her fault, how she figured she wouldn’t need to bother thinking about it again, but now she’s back and it’s all changed again.

“Me too,” Haruka says, looking down at the ground. The silence between them is painful, and she realises that anyone who hadn’t known them in junior high would never have realised that they ever had been best friends.

“Yukie, we should get going,” Izumi says quietly, trying not to look at Haruka, and the two are gone without another word.

After that, it’s safe to say that Haruka wants to go home. Hirono obliges.

—

The walk home should be a painful and lonely one, but with Hirono there, it isn’t too bad. Haruka feels as if she should want to be quiet, want to be alone, but after seeing Yukie again, everything fresh in her mind again, all she wants to do is talk. Luckily, Hirono seems willing to listen, and she knows that if she wants her to shut up, she’ll just tell her. Until then, she just wants to let it out. She’s never told everyone all the details before.

“I’m sorry, about getting involved in the fight,” Haruka starts. “I just wanted to try and stop it. Seeing my friends like that… was unexpected, to say that least.”

“I was surprised you got involved. At least you didn’t stand there like an idiot, like the rest of us,” Hirono responds. “And it was personal for you, too.”

“Yeah,” Haruka says, telling herself not to back out now, “it was kind of my fault that they were fighting. Before I left towards the end of junior high… I… I decided to tell Yukie I liked her, and had liked her for a long time. She didn’t feel the same way, and after that, things weren’t the same between us again. Satomi realised there was something wrong, and I told her about what happened, and she got so mad at Yukie. Our whole friend group found out, and basically split in half. I decided to leave, thinking it’d be for the best. I deleted all my social media, setting up new ones under my aunt’s last name… and things were pretty good for a while… until she died and I had to come back here. I’ve been nervous about seeing Yukie ever since my parents brought me back to Shiroiwa.”

Hirono nods along as she tells her story, not too sure how to pick the right words. No one confides in her like this, and she’s never been prepared for it. She tries her best, though. For Haruka. She’s come this far tonight, and she doesn’t want to ruin it now.

“I’m sorry it went badly… that would have sucked, losing your best friend just like that, especially when you finally felt confident enough to tell her,” Hirono eventually says. She wonders what it would be like to lose a best friend, but she just can’t imagine it. She’s never had a best friend, she realises. She’d never count Mitsuko as one. Maybe Yoshimi… but then again, they weren’t really _that_ close.

“It still seems like she can’t look at me the same, not that I expected anything different, really,” Haruka sighs, staring down at the pavement. “At least there’s only about a year and a half left, and then we’ll probably truly never see each other again. She’ll probably forget about me soon enough. And our other friends? Maybe a few of them will remember me, but I can already tell that we probably won’t hang out when I get back.”

“You’ll have me,” Hirono says before she can stop herself. Haruka looks surprised for a moment, but a small smile crosses her face, realising that when Monday comes, she definitely won’t be alone. It may just be one person telling her that they’ll be there, but it means more than anything at the moment.

“Thank you,” Haruka says, her pink cheeks just caught by the streetlights as they pass one. “I’m sorry for talking about this so much… we were talking about something before the fight broke out, weren’t we?”

The conversation comes back to Hirono, hitting her like a ton of bricks. She thinks about telling her that she’s forgotten what they were talking about, let the old conversation die, but considering what Haruka just confided in her, it just doesn’t seem fair. With a deep breath, she reaches to light another cigarette again, before realising she left her pack back at the party. It seems harder to tell the story without one, but she forces the words to come out anyway.

“You asked me about Yoshimi,” Hirono begins. “About two months into tenth grade, Yoshimi was walking home from Yoji’s house.. and she was hit by a car. She passed away. After that was when Mitsuko and I started arguing all the time. I’m pretty sure the main reason we split apart was because she died.”

Haruka stops, looking at her for a moment, trying to remember Yoshimi, thinking of her laugh, the small smile she gave her once when passing her in the hallway. She hadn’t been a saint, no one was, and she definitely hadn’t deserved to have died so young.

“You don’t have to say you’re sorry or anything,” Hirono says quietly. “She’s gone, and not gonna come back.”

“Still, you lost a friend. It can’t be easy. If you aren’t okay, you can’t go on pretending,” Haruka looks up as they turn the corner. They’re on her street now, the night almost at an end.

“Thank you, but I’ll be fine,” Hirono shrugs, always playing it cool. She has to be fine. No one is going to pick her up when she falls, no one is going to give her advice. Maybe, one day it can be different, Haruka showing her slivers of what this could be like, but for now, she wants to keep everything as is. It’s too soon.

Haruka nods, not wanting to push her, trying her best to understand. They’ve both lost a friend, in quite different ways, and even though one isn’t dead, still, both of them aren’t going to come back. They just need to hold on to what they have here in the now. With Hirono around, Monday isn’t gonna be so bad. She never expected that she would be the one to offer  this, but she’s welcoming it with open arms.

“Here’s me,” Haruka says when they reach her door, “thank you again for taking me. I’m sorry if I messed it up.”

“You didn’t,” Hirono says, stepping forward, getting the courage to take her hands. Immediately, Haruka is grateful for the darkness, hiding her pink cheeks, but she lets her. “It would have sucked if you weren’t there.”

Haruka doesn’t want the night to end, but it has to, and now that they’re at her door, it’s rapidly approaching. She doesn’t exactly know why it feels so right, but she knows she can’t leave the night without it. Hirono’s lips taste like ash, alcohol and faintly lemon, and it’s just utterly perfect. Hirono is left completely awestruck, wondering if this was a dream, but she doesn’t question it. She doesn’t want to ruin it with her words.

When she’s back in the safety of her room, Haruka smiles to herself. Things aren’t going to be perfect, she knows that, but with Hirono by her side, things won’t be that bad. They can get through these next two years together and maybe even more, and what happens, happens. They can face it together.


End file.
